Pakistan Army Al-Zarrar Tank (Swat)

[Rank]

 

[Super Falcon]

what the hell is this man how did it got hit im tottaly out of my mind this tank was said to be very good

 

[Qasibr]

The tank doesn't look destroyed. It's sides are covered with mud, and it's chain is removed. My guess would be that this was done for repairs. Maybe something broke down. The armour doesn't even have slight dents or any visible burn marks.

This is an Al-Zarrar, and not the Al-Khalid MBT right?

 

[lamayuru]

what the hell is this man how did it got hit im tottaly out of my mind this tank was said to be very good

only Pakistanis said it was good.

But you have to give the tank, the crew must have survived. Hence ideal combination of firepower, mobility and crew protection. Here the crew MAY have been protected at the cost of mobility.

 

[lamayuru]

sides are covered with mud, and it's chain is removed

are you suggesting a penture?

 

[QADRI]

that Al-zarrar..destroyed long before at the start of operation Rah-E-Haq and it was hit by IED which destroyed its chains but Armour and crew was saved...but due heavy fighting and destroyed chain PA was unable to move it to HIT for repair...

 

[graphican]

Tallat Hussein had a program about Soldiers who were fighting on the fronts and in that program a Major sab had described how this tank got hit. I can recall there was no mentioning of causalities as a result. In my opinion, tank got hit and would have damaged its maneuverability to some degree. You would see tank is nicely parked on the road-side but during the battle, they move in the middle of the roads to avoid road-side sliding. So even after hitting, the tank had enough maneuverability to be parked and it didn't bust which usually happens in such cases.

 

[Kamakazi 69]

Wait, isn't that an Al-Khalid?

 

[lamayuru]

Someone who knows khalid from zarrar please clarify which it is.

In any case whichever it is, the crew lived to tell the tale.

 

[EagleEyes]

Al-Zarrar

 

[TaimiKhan]

Its an Al Zarrar, which had taken RPG hits also during this same fight, which is said to be one of the fiercest gun battle with the Taliban in this current phase of operations, happened in Buner if i remember correctly. Was shown in Live With Talat program too. Also if i recall the conversation of that Major talking to Talat, he said it took RPG hits also, then an IED immobilized it & it was hit with some kind of a weapon which the army was evaluating at that time to what it was. The major said it was some weapon which they themselves did not knew & trying to *****. I hope someone here who watched that episode can back me up.
6 or so suicide bombings also happened on this spot of gun battle.

---------- Post added at 05:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:13 PM ----------

Its an Al Zarrar, which had taken RPG hits also during this same fight, which is said to be one of the fiercest gun battle with the Taliban in this current phase of operations, happened in Buner if i remember correctly. Was shown in Live With Talat program too. Also if i recall the conversation of that Major talking to Talat, he said it took RPG hits also, then an IED immobilized it & it was hit with some kind of a weapon which the army was evaluating at that time to what it was. The major said it was some weapon which they themselves did not knew & trying to *****. I hope someone here who watched that episode can back me up.
6 or so suicide bombings also happened on this spot of gun battle.

 

[wangrong]

 

[TaimiKhan]

AL Khalid is 6 wheel vehicle & Al Zarrar is 5 wheeled.

 

[Qasibr]

are you suggesting a penture?

"penture" hehehe... nah man. I just said it's chains were removed, I don't know how you interpolated from that, and thought I was suggesting a puncture.

 

[Shiji]

This is the same tank (Al-Zarrar) that was destroyed and I guess has been taken to that area by an ARV so as to use it as an obstacle. Look at these picks it is the same tank. My relatives say that there are reports of one Tank being destroyed and a few M-113s, apart from the police APCs that were captured by the Taliban and then attack on by the Army.

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani announced summoning of the Pakistan army to crush militancy and terrorism in Swat and Malakand with an iron hand and vowed to establish the writ of the government at all costs. Addressing the nation on radio and television Prime Minister Gilani said time had come to take serious action against the militants who had disrupted peace and tranquility in parts of NWFP. "Army is being called in for upholding the sanctity and national integrity, for elimination of militants and to ensure security of the people," Prime Minister Gilani said.

Since then Pakistan army has been using its Al-Zarrar MBT for precision day night attack capability and recently we have been able to watch the video in which an Al-Zarrar tank was shown destroyed. Many claims have been made about the destruction of these tanks and how this will affect the moral of Pakistani army in Swat and FATA. But what was unknown until now was the fact how this tank was destroyed? It was part of small force at the front to make first contact with the militants along with force of around 35 personals of Pakistani army. It was ambushed from three sides of the mountainous road and has to face at least six suicide attack attempts within span of 15 minutes along with attacks through improvised explosive devices that were buried in their way. Crew of the destroyed Al-Zarrar MBT survived without injuries and tank was recovered as neither turret of chassis of Al-Zarrar MBT was penetrated which also proved the recent upgrade was successful. Survival of the crew form the destroyed Al-Zarrar MBT is also going to be a major moral booster for the crew as they will have more confidence in the crew protection capability of the tank. According to the soldiers participating in this furious battle fought in first week of this recent attempt by the Pakistan army to clear out the areas from Taliban militants, they were attacked from three sides by different militant groups that have divided themselves into smaller groups of four to five. First attack was through improvise explosive devices which resulted in destruction of the tanks and afterwards Taliban started firing at them, they say that it was very difficult for them to access the direction of the fire and strength of the enemy. Soldiers involved in this fight say that it took us some time to estimate their positions and after that we started counter attack by sending our troops to surround them. Taliban felt the heat and started second part of the attack to scatter and destroy the advance party of Pakistan army, they launched one of their front end weapon against this small advance party; suicide bombers. Because of the magnitude of this attack, one can easily describe it as the largest suicide attack in Pakistan if not the largest in the world, mounted against a small force in shuch a limited time. This attack involved at least six different vehicles and three motor bikes filled with explosives and driven by suicide bombers within short span of time of only fifteen minutes. Pakistani soldiers first gave them warnings to stop as they thought these were civilian vehicles, but later on they recognized the threat in time and started firing at them, most of these vehicles were destroyed but due to high speed these did at front line vehicles of this small military force. According to the commanding officer of this advance force, they were very fortunate that none of their troop involved in this operation was killed and all thirty five of them were able to survive this attack.

This report is based on the program of AAJ TV which included the interviews of the Pakistani army personals involved

How the Al-Zarrar was destroyed